Starry Eyes
by helnae
Summary: Where a girl finds true friends when she looks within. And where friends see what lies beneath the surface.
1. Connections 1-1

I awoke in an unfamiliar room to a chorus of angels.

White walls, white floor, white sheets. Wires led from my hand to a beeping monitor. An IV (Morphine? Some kind of painkiller, if the fuzziness of my thoughts was any sign) dripped away into the tube in my arm. A nearby window framed a dark, overcast sky.

_A hospital? Why am I... oh. The locker._

Winter break had just ended, and I had hoped that the bullying campaign led by my former best friend Emma would cool down as well. But when I reached my locker I found it filled with used and fermenting pads and tampons. The smell alone made me vomit, and someone, probably Emma's compatriot Sophia, took the opportunity to shove me into the mess and lock the door behind me. I had waited in there for hours before someone finally let me out, and those fucking bitches were probably going to get off without even a slap on the wrist. And there-

There was the chorus again, a dozen feminine voices singing in near perfect harmony. But even though it sounded rather close I could not see its source. Hesitantly, I said, "Hello?".

The voices paused for a moment. "It can speak?"

"Um, yes?" I looked around the room for the source of the voices, but I didn't see anywhere it could come from.

"It can understand?" The voice sounded even more ecstatic.

"Of course I- Where are you, anyway?"

"I am right next to you, silly. I have never found a talking spatial distortion before, this is so exciting!"

Well. This was weird enough that it was probably a dream. I didn't want to think about the possibility of it being a hallucination, and what that would say about my mental stability. And hopefully my tormentors wouldn't have been able to set up a prank in here.

This wasn't their style, anyway, so I decided to treat it like a dream- go along with it and try to enjoy the ride.

"So, do you have a name?"

"Tekeli-li? A name? I might have had one, maybe more! But I cannot remember. Does it have a name?"

I frowned. "My name is Taylor. So you don't have a name, then?"

"Oh, that is a nice name! And yes, it has been so long that I cannot recall if I even had a name." The voices paused. "Then again, the passage of time is somewhat subjective here."

"Well, it'll be a pain if I don't have anything to call you by. Let me see if I can think of something." Her voices were almost musical, so maybe... "How does Aria sound?" _Probably not, maybe something el-_

"Oh, that is a wonderful name! Thank you!"

Ah. That works, too, I guess.

"I must go tell my sister about this! And then I'll bring her to meet you, too. Be sure not to wander while I am gone!"

"What? Wait, I... and you're gone, aren't you."

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

In the morning, I awoke to see my father sitting beside my bed. He smiled down at me, and I gave a small one back. After a short hug, he sat back down, and we talked. Mostly, he just wanted to make sure I was okay, but eventually, the conversation drifted... elsewhere. After telling me that I'd been here for a couple of days, he trailed off and clenching his jaw. We both sat in silence for a while, but eventually he seemed to calm down, and he continued.

I never liked seeing him like that.

Apparently he had been able to get some money from the school after the... incident. Enough to pay the hospital bills, with a little bit extra, but even so it was rather blatantly hush money so we wouldn't go causing problems for the school. Dad wanted to sue the bullies, but no witnesses were coming forth. Without hard evidence we really didn't have the money for the lawsuit.

Dad was furious, but the news just made me feel depressed. I wanted to go home.

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

The doctors wanted to examine me once more before releasing me, but we were able to get me released a little after noon.

The school was allowing me a week off to recuperate. At the very least I didn't have to deal with the trio for a while. Unfortunately, Dad had to work, so I was left alone for most of the time.

The next day I was cutting a cucumber to use in my lunch. I'd probably go to the library later, since I'd read most of the books I had over the winter break. Sighing, I propped my head up on my left arm, letting my other arm (and the knife) rest on the counter.

"Hello there! Did you miss me?"

The unexpected shout made me twitch, violently and involuntarily, sending the knife straight into my arm.


	2. Connections 1-2

_Ohgodohgodohgodithurtsithurtsithurtsit..._

_... Doesn't actually hurt all that much?_

_Huh._

I stared at the knife buried in my forearm. At the distinct lack of any blood, and the unblemished spot on the other side where the blade should have exited. The pain was there, but it felt distant, almost like it was happening to someone else and I was just observing.

Come to think of it, that was how my general sense of touch had been since I'd gotten out of the hospital. And on the subject of the hospital, the fact that the imaginary voice had returned didn't really say good things about my mental health.

"So I managed to find my sister in order to show you to her, and tekeli-li how you've grown and bloomed! If it weren't for the fact that you're the only thing in the area aside from us, I would have thought you were something else entirely." Aria paused for a moment. "You are Taylor, right?"

"Yeah, that's me," I said, taking a grip on the knife in preparation to pull it out.

"Great! If it wasn't you that would've been... what's the term? Embarrassing? Yes, embarrassing. Though anything is better than just floating around in this empty place and oh my you've got a spot of actual color!"

"What, what?" I said wittily as I yanked the knife free. The wound, which should have been bleeding quite profusely, was instead a clean black hole within which I could see... _Are those stars?_

The odd points of light were suddenly blocked as something green poked through the knife wound. I froze as it wiggled around before what appeared to be a jade-colored eyeball formed on its tip. My vision seemed to distort as it swiveled around, until its gaze settled on the sliced cucumber, at which point the tendril formed a toothy mouth and lunged.

"Food!"

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

The tendril had managed to inhale the cucumber, devour the wooden cutting board, and was gnawing on the plastic handle of the knife before I managed to react.

"Hey!" I shouted reaching for the tendril with the intent to pull it back. Before I could do so, the tendril suddenly recoiled from the counter and released the knife. The resulting airborne cutting implement narrowly missed my face and landed on the floor, skittering for a few feet before stopping.

"Um, Taylor? I seem to have lost control over the bit I stuck into you."

_What._

I turned and grabbed a chair, pulling it out from the table. I noticed that the tendril was grabbing the back of the chair next to my hand, but I ignored that in favor of collapsing into the seat.

"So. This is a part of you?"

"Yes, so could you give it back, please? This feels weird."

"Hmm. I must say, you don't look anything like what I'd imagined."

I sat there for a moment, wiggling the tendril and looking around the kitchen with its eye. Then the realization hit me like a sledgehammer.

I was seeing through that eye. I was moving the tendril with my thought.

_This is real. I have powers._

_I'm a cape._

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

"So what exactly are you? And why'd you try to eat everything just then?" I asked as I let the tendril return through the knife wound.

"Thank you, that felt very odd." The last of the tendril passed through, revealing the star-like lights once more. "Anyway, I don't rightly know what I am. Must be one of those things I forgot like my name. We've been here for so long..." Aria trailed off briefly.

"As for the eating? It's one of the great pleasures, one I haven't been able to indulge in such a long time. Nothing here really needs to eat, but it's nice to do so. There's been nothing in the general area aside from my sister and you, and I've had a number of reasons to not eat her. So when I saw edible stuff, I guess I lost control."

"Alright then." I sighed. "So who's this sister you've been mentioning?"

"Oh, right! I guess I forgot to introduce her. Say hi, sis."

"H-hello," she said, in a single voice as opposed to Aria's many.

"Hello, there. And let me guess, you don't remember your name either, and want one, right?"

"Y-yes, that is the case."

"Alright, fine. Give me a minute."

A little more than a minute later, I sighed. "Aria's name is something to do with music, so maybe we could go with something similar. How does Melody sound?"

"Oh, i-it's-"

"It's great! I love it!" interrupted Aria. "Isn't it great, big sis?"

"Y-yes. Thank you, Taylor."

"Wonderful. Now, if we're done with that, I'd like to clean up here and actually have some lunch."


	3. Connections 1-3

Since Dad wouldn't be home for a few more hours, I decided to use the time to do some testing with my newfound powers. Examining how my body had changed seemed like a good place to start.

It appeared that everything beneath my skin had been removed and replaced with a portal to whatever starry space the sisters lived in, though apparently my mouth still connected to my esophagus.

It seemed that the portal would allow almost anything I tried to put through it in, the exceptions being my skin, hair, and nails, This made a certain amount of sense, as I would be rather unhappy if my skin were to collapse into the portal.

While wondering how I would conceal the numerous cuts I had made on my skin during my examinations, I managed to stumble upon my healing ability. Apparently, if I focused my attention on a wound it would heal much faster. Holding cuts closed helped shorten the healing time for wider cuts. If I cut out a portion of skin it seemed to slow down the focused healing process, though reattaching the removed skin was fairly easy.

As an experiment, I cut out a one inch circle of skin containing half of an old scar I had on my hip. Healing it without replacing the removed skin took about fifteen minutes, but the end result was an unblemished, scar-free patch of skin. The results were the same when I removed the rest of that scar and the other scar on my knee.

_Huh. I could possibly fix my eyesight with this._

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

"Alright, I've seen that Aria can extend those tendrils through me. Those'll be very useful. Now, Melody, could you send something through, please?"

"Ah, okay." I felt a soft poking from the other side of one of the cuts on my arm. "It would be most helpful if you could make this one somewhat longer."

I extended it to about four inches in length. "How's that?"

"Ah, longer would be nice."

I added another couple inches.

"Still not long enough."

Another couple of inches.

"Getting there."

_Fuck it._ I opened my arm from wrist to mid-bicep and held it straight.

"Ah, g-good, that will do. Hold still for one moment."

Something large and black as night forced its way through the incision. It unfolded until its motion was arrested by collision with the ceiling, narrowly missing the light.

I now had a huge, black, bat-like wing extending out of my arm. Which was also pointing the wrong way for use.

In the resulting silence, Melody said, "You were right, sister. This does feel weird."

"... Yeah. That's going somewhere else."

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

Throughout my examination, Aria and Melody mostly stayed silent, watching through the cuts and occasionally asking about things they saw. They seemed particularly interested in seeing my reflection in the mirror once they noticed it. This led to me standing in front of my mirror in various poses so they could see what I looked like, though it quickly devolved into me trying to explain the concept of clothing to them.

"S-so you cover your b-body with bits of crafted dead plants and-slash-or dead plants, even when it does not provide protection and thus is unnecessary?"

"I already told you, society dictates that we wear at least a certain amount of clothing in order to be decent. Also, sometimes you can use clothing to appear prettier."

"Waste of food if you ask me."

Yeah. They didn't really get it.

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

"Look, girls. You got to see what I look like, so it's only fair that you let me see what you look like."

"Okay."

I pulled off my shirt, then pulled my belly taut as I carved a roundish flap into it. I stood up and let the flap flop down as I walked over to the mirror.

With the larger viewing port, the starscape beyond the hole was spectacular. Countless stars stared back at me. Most were white. Many were yellow. Some blue. A few green. One red.

"Alright, could you go to the large hole that just opened up and stand a bit back from it." I considered the hole for a bit. "Or I guess you could just float a bit back from it since there doesn't seem to be any ground to stand on."

"Hee hee, alright, give us a bit."

Soon enough two shapes started blocking out the stars, and it was readily apparent which was which sister.

"So the large one with all the mouths must be Aria," I said. It was rather difficult to judge size without anything to compare against, but Aria was larger than a car at the very least. She was an orb-like mass of beautiful forest-green gel, peppered here and there with tendrils, fang-filled mouths of varying sizes and orientations, and jade-colored eyeballs, which also varied in size and almost seemed to glow.

"Which means that the other one is Melody." Her body was black as night, like her wing was. She was dark enough that I could really only perceive her as a starless patch of the void, though the stars were plentiful enough behind her that I got a pretty good picture. She seemed to be a gaunt, winged humanoid, with inward-curving horns upon her head, clawed hands on long arms, taloned feet at the ends of digitigrade legs, and a long, barbed tail.

She was also, at least from my perspective, upside-down.

"So, do you like what you see?"

"Yes, you are both quite pretty."

Aria rippled in what I assumed was her version of preening. Melody just sort of hung there, slowly turning.

I glanced between them for a moment, before saying, "I assume that you are not of the same species."

"That is true," replied Melody. "Aria here was barely sapient when I first found her floating around in the void, so very long ago. I sort of adopted her as my sister once she stopped trying to gnaw on me."

"Hey! You didn't have to tell Taylor that part!" Aria squawked indignantly.

Melody and I chuckled briefly as I looked for a little while more. Then I pulled up the flap to heal it closed.

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

The only problem I found with the focused healing was that it actually hurt, unlike the distant pain I experienced when I made the incisions. The pain wasn't that bad, well within the range of bearable, but the fact that it wasn't a step removed made it rather distracting. Unfortunately, I had made a number of incisions in easily visible places, and I had to heal them all before Dad returned home. There was no need to worry him further.

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

_It would probably be easier to keep track of this stuff if I recorded it somewhere. I should probably go pick up a journal tomorrow._

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

At this point it was getting rather late. I quickly healed all my remaining cuts and went downstairs to gather the ingredients for dinner. Dad had insisted that I leave the effort of preparing dinner to him until he decided I had gotten enough rest, but that didn't mean I couldn't make the task easier for him.

Suddenly, what I'd been doing for the past few hours hit me. I fell against a nearby wall, then slid down to the floor, where I started shivering.

My body had changed so much so quickly, my new friends were apparently inhuman monsters who were far nicer than any actual human I knew, and to top it off I had spent the afternoon engaged in extensive self-mutilation.

And that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that none of it bothered me much at all. I was, perversely, more disturbed by my lack of disturbance than by the things that should be causing me to feel disturbed. It was almost ludicrous.

It was certainly ludicrous enough to draw out a laugh from me that admittedly was more sob than chuckle.

"Ah, are you well?" came Melody's query.

I took a deep, shuddering breath before I replied.

"I'll be fine, it was just a little freak-out. I'll be fine in a little bit, so don't worry."

"Oh. Okay. So long as you are well."

I leaned against the wall for a moment as I collected myself, before getting up to go wash my face and carry on with my task.


	4. Connections 1-4

Dinner was a dish of pork and vegetables in a sauce, served over rice. It was pretty tasty, as Dad's cooking tends to be when he puts some time into it.

Dinner was also rather quiet. Neither of us seemed to know what to say. As a result, the atmosphere was a little tense.

In the end, Dad was the one to break the silence.

"So. You'll be returning on Monday. To school, that is."

I jumped a little when he spoke. Then I swiftly finished my mouthful so I could respond.

"Yes, I will."

"You know, you don't have to go back so soon. I could go to Winslow, have them give you a few more days off," he said, his eyes tinged with worry.

"No Dad, it's alright. I'll be fine." I lowered my eyes. Of course I'd be fine. This time I had two new friends, ones Emma couldn't subvert or coerce.

"But what if something like that happens again?"

"I'll be fine, Dad."

"You sure?" I nodded. He sighed, and said, "Well, alright then, kiddo. I just wish you would confide in me more, is all."

We ate in silence for a little while after that.

Once more, Dad was the one to break the silence. "You know, you seem... different than you were this morning."

"R-really?" I stammered, worried that I'd left some trace of my earlier experimentation. No, all the cuts had healed, so what could it be?

"Yeah, you seem, I don't know, happier, I guess."

"I do?"

"Yes, you do. It's nice, seeing you happy." He paused for a bit, before continuing. "So what happened while I was gone? Did you," his eyebrows rose, and a little smile played across his features, "meet a boy?"

I sputtered, "N-no! It's not a boy!"

His smile grew wider. "Really? Because it's a father's duty to be highly suspicious of any boy his daughter meets."

"No! That's not it, I didn't meet any boys!" They were girls! Moreover, they weren't human, and I wasn't likely to develop romantic feelings towards either of them.

And now the smile had given way to a full-blown chuckle. "Well, whatever, or whoever, it was," his eyebrows resumed their raised position, "remember that you have my full support."

I looked down at my plate, my cheeks burning... Huh. My cheeks weren't burning. This lack of a blush probably warranted further testing.

In any case, I stared down at my plate, waiting for Dad to stop laughing. I felt a smile twist my mouth, and a few bursts of laughter escaped me too.

When we had calmed down, Dad said, "Well. In any case, tomorrow is Saturday, so I'll be around if you need me."

"Oh, yeah. I'll be going out some time tomorrow."

"To meet this not-boy, I suppose?" He grinned.

"Da-aaad! Stop it!" I whi- protested. I protested. And he started laughing again. "I'm just going to go to the library, and maybe do a bit of shopping."

"Well, alright then. Do you have enough money?" I nodded. "Good."

We continued eating, but the atmosphere was noticeably less tense.

"Taylor?"

I looked up, my full mouth preventing a response.

"Aren't you cold?" I shook my head. "It's twenty degrees outside. I'd think you would be chilly in that t-shirt."

I swallowed. "It doesn't feel that cold to me."

"Well, you're certainly making me feel cold," he said, with a hint of a grin.

Huh. This should make designing my costume much easier.


	5. Connections 1-5

The next day's outing went without incident for the most part. Once I had entered my chosen store I found a good, cheap journal fairly quickly. As I was going to purchase it, I decided to snag some hair ties and hairbands, since they might help with a disguise.

The library trip was similarly successful and uneventful, with the return of the read books and the acquisition of some new ones. I considered using a computer to look up the local capes, to see whom I might meet once I began my career as a hero, but I decided against it for a couple of reasons. For one, right now I needed to figure out the ins-and-outs of my own power first before I could consider my debut. For another, all the computers I could see were occupied, and I did not want to waste time waiting around for one to be vacated. Besides, I would have plenty of time to use a computer later.

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

"So, let us record what we know of this power," I proclaimed as I sat at my desk, my newly purchased journal open in front of me. One of Aria's tendrils extended from a cut I had opened just above my wrist and was currently occupied with an apple.

_Note to self: take some time to learn a number of synonyms for "cut." It is getting a little tedious thinking the same word so many times._

With the sisters' assent, I began listing out what we knew about my power so far.

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

"So there's something I've been wondering," I said once the notes from the previous day had been recorded.

"What's that, Taylor?" asked Aria.

"Well, from what I've seen through the holes, your end of the portal appears to be in outer space. Is this true? Are there no nearby planets or things like that?"

This time Melody was the one to answer. "You, Aria, and I are the only things in this area, and it's quite a distance to the nearest object."

"Then there shouldn't be any air there. Probably. So why haven't all the cuts I've made turned into vacuums? And how... Wait. I think I know a way to test that," I said as I got up and left the room.

When I returned I had with me an empty plastic water bottle. I sat down, then cut a flap large enough to stick the bottle through; I did so, with half of it remaining outside of the portal.

"Could one of you remove the cap from this? It's the whiter bit at the tip."

I felt the bottle wobble a bit before suddenly crumpling in on itself. I looked at it for a moment before realizing something.

"Wait, that doesn't make sense. If the portal isn't letting air through normally, then it should either have not sucked up the air in the part of the bottle on this side, or it should have refused the bottle altogether. Unless..." I sighed.

"More testing?"

"Yes. But later, 'cause this raises a few questions. Like how are you two moving around over there."

"That should not be too difficult to answer," said Melody. "We just move through the aether-"

"Aether?" I interrupted.

"That is the name I use to refer to the ambient gas around here. In most areas it is spread extremely thin, or is just not present, but occasionally it clumps together in relatively dense clouds. They are dense enough to push against and move around that way. It is a slow and time-consuming method of transportation, but we really have nothing but time here.

"Now, there is an aether cloud around you, and one of the densest I have ever seen, but the pressure it exerts is practically nothing compared to the pressure I felt on my wing when I stuck it through you."

"Yes, it's quite the novel sensation," Aria chimed in.

"Huh." I jotted down a few notes from that. "So I guess my easy prisoner transport idea won't work."

"Transport?"

"Oh, yeah. I haven't told you two yet." I probably should have informed them, but given that it had been just a little over a day since I had learned I was a parahuman I couldn't really fault myself for getting distracted by learning about my new powers, and my new friends. "I want, hopefully with your assistance, to become a hero."

There was a brief silence.

"Um... What's a hero?"

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

Surprisingly, it was quite a bit easier to explain the whole parahuman situation to them than explaining clothing had been. And they seemed quite happy to assist me, which was nice. Once I had explained my transportation idea, I managed to convince Aria to practice leaving nearby plastics and similar materials unsampled.

However, by then it had gotten rather late, so we decided to stop there for the evening. I left the ruined water bottle from earlier on their side so Aria could practice. I also put a few cookies through, since she'd been so sweet about the whole thing. She fell asleep soon after consuming the last one, or so Melody reported.

As I lay in bed that night trying to fall asleep, I remembered something that had been nagging at me from the back of my mind for a while.

"Melody?" I asked.

"Yes?"

"Aria seems to eat anything that is organic, and she loves trying new foods. But you've never asked for anything to eat. In fact, I don't think I saw a mouth on you when I saw you yesterday. Why is that?"

"Ah. This explanation may take a little while." She sighed, and I could almost feel her leaning up against my closed other side. "First of all, there is something you must know about living on this side of you. Nothing living here requires sustenance, though we retain the ability to eat should we wish to. In all the time I have been here, I have never found so much as a clue as to what is causing this phenomenon. And speaking of time, I am nearly certain that I have been here for quite a bit longer that the normal lifespan of my species lasts; long enough to forget a great many things, including my name; and you shall have my eternal gratitude for granting me another."

"Aww, don't mention it." A smile crossed my features, though it was soon chased away by a frown. "So something in there has made you immortal and made you no longer need food water or air."

"Indeed. And while this space we are in is enormous, there is nothing here but those of us living here, some aether, and a few stars, and there are borders to it that we cannot cross."

"That almost sounds like a prison," I said.

"I confess that I have had similar thoughts about it, though, of course, I cannot remember even coming here, much less a reason for doing so. But now you are here, and I am certain you will only make this place better."

A smile blessed my face once more, and if I could still blush I would probably have done so.

Melody continued, "But we are getting a little sidetracked from your question. You were not mistaken about my lack of a mouth. My kind do not eat material food; instead, we consume emotions from other creatures."

My eyes widened with alarm. "Wait, you suck the emotions out of people?"

"No, it is not possible to 'suck' emotions, as it were. Creatures experience emotions, emotional energy is released, and we graze on that energy. There are various methods for... encouraging the production of more enticing emotions, but in the end there is little harm done.

"Now Aria, as you noted earlier, is very much geared towards eating material food. From what little I remember of her species, she would normally be driven to consume a very large amount of food to fuel her huge body, and only once she had eaten that much would she be able to refuse more. But thanks to the sustaining effect this space has on all of us, she is never hungry and thus can act more rationally."

I giggled a little. "That hasn't stopped her from pouncing on nearly everything she might find edible so far. Though then again, I am glad she hasn't tried to eat my desk or anything else here made of wood."

"Given that it has been so long since she had eaten anything at all, she is probably reveling in the relative novelty of all the possible flavors," Melody said, with what sounded like a smile in her voice.

"Indeed. So, let's try coming up with some ideas for my hero costume tomorrow. Good night."

"And a good night to you as well."


	6. Connections 1-6

"Aaaaand done. See if you can reach those comfortably."

I wore a satisfied smile as the claws extended through the holes I had made in my fingertips. The costume idea was working pretty well so far.

I was sitting in the middle of my room without a shirt or bra on. With Aria's help, I had managed to cut a pair of slits into my back, from which extended large, black, bat-like wings. Below them, a black, barbed tail lay coiled around my legs, and the aforementioned claws extended from the tips of my fingers. Unfortunately the claws were better adapted for catching and gripping than for ripping and tearing, so I would still need to use a knife to make a good hole in myself, but they would be useful for other purposes.

Luckily Dad was out buying groceries, so there was no risk of him walking in on me in this state.

"You doing alright there, Melody?"

"Yes. It is actually rather comfortable," she replied.

"Excellent. You can withdraw when you want to."

I couldn't test the wings out inside the house for the obvious reasons. Flight was one of the tests I would have to perform outside, and I was eager to do so. However, I wanted to have some sort of costume together before I started using my powers in public. And now that I had proven that borrowing from Melody would work, we could design the costume around it.

At first I had been thinking of an armored and concealing costume, but I quickly scrapped the idea as it ran counter to what I knew of my powers so far. Melody had suggested that we test out borrowing her wings and tail in useful places, i.e. my back (of course), and then go from there.

It was readily apparent that a backless shirt would be a necessity for the costume. Since I only had so much of my allowance remaining I couldn't use any expensive materials, and I didn't want to beg more money from Dad as he would probably get a little suspicious.

For the bottom portion of my costume I decided to just go with some jeans and tennis shoes. I had thought about springing for some hiking boots because the ankle support might be necessary, until Melody pointed out that my ankles as they were now would probably not benefit much at all from additional support.

To round out my costume, I decided to include a belt with pouches on it. Not only was it an alternative to swapping out the jeans for cargo pants (pockets and pouches were useful), they also gave the costume a bit more of a "cape-y" feel.

Aria suggested that we get costume pieces that were dark green, or just a dark color when dark green wasn't available. Melody and I both concurred.

I would also need to get at least one knife, since the little kitchen knife I had been using just wouldn't cut it for actual heroing.

The only part I hadn't decided on yet was the mask, and there were a few obstacles to that decision. For one, I didn't know what I really wanted the mask to look like. For another, I didn't really know how to go about making my own mask without attracting attention. Also, the only place I knew that sold masks was a halloween shop, which could probably give me a good price on a plastic piece of crap.

I informed the sisters of the difficulty I was having with the mask, hoping they would have some ideas. I had been able to decide on the rest of my costume quite quickly, so I felt that I needed to decide on a mask today instead of slowly considering it over the next week or so.

"So you just want to make it so nobody can see your face, right?" asked Aria.

"Yes, that's right."

"So why don't you just cut your face off?"

The idea seemed so obvious I was surprised I hadn't thought of it myself. It would serve double duty in preserving my identity and providing an access point for Aria.

Not only that, if I did this I was pretty sure I would be unique among capes. The vast majority of capes wore masks to conceal their identities; some capes, like the members of New Wave, didn't bother with masks, instead exposing their identities for all the world to see. But I would likely be the only one to remove my face and use what it concealed to conceal my identity.

I wanted to try it out immediately. I turned so I was facing my mirror, removed my glasses and set them on the desk, grabbed the knife, and got to work. Start at the chin, cut up and out to the cheekbone, then up and in to the forehead, then down to the other cheekbone before ending at the start point.

It wasn't until I was staring down at the face - my face - in my hands that I realized how insane the idea had been.

_I... I just cut off my face. And I'm holding it in my hands and looking at my eyes and it's kinda floppy and oh god this is really creepy and how am I seeing without eyeballs and I don't think I'm breathing and oh god oh god oh god..._

I took a deep breath - or would have if I hadn't apparently stopped breathing - and attempted to calm down. I leaned back in my chair, and in doing so I caught a glimpse of my handiwork in the mirror. I would likely have gasped, if I had been able to.

Through the slightly uneven hole countless stars shone forth, their light sharp and beautiful. Though predominantly white, stars of every color and shade twinkled and flickered innocently and irregularly in the void. They swirled together in clusters and nebulae of all shapes and sizes, though all but a few were relatively small.

Actually, if I looked at them right some of the larger clusters seemed to form a sort of face, albeit one that was crooked and didn't have a nose. Two rounder clusters in the upper portion of the hole could serve as the eyes, their swirled forms like galaxies, though they were of slightly different sizes and weren't exactly level with one another. The larger of the two, occupying the left part of my face hole, was also higher up than its counterpart, and had a clockwise swirl and a nice yellowish tinge. The other was more oval-shaped and tilted inward slightly; it had a counterclockwise swirl and a grayish coloration. Below them a long, thin nebula curved in shades of pink, looking almost like a crooked mouth giving a half-smile.

"Okay, then," I said, and then started slightly at the changed sound of my voice. It bore similarity to my normal voice, but was hollow and echoing. A chorus of resonating tones accompanied it, some so low I could barely hear them. Of course, this paled next to the fact that I could speak without a mouth or breath.

I was startled from my musings by the sight of one of Aria's eyes on the tip of a tendril peering around the edge of my face hole. "Is it working well?" she asked.

"Yes, it just fine." I paused. "Actually, no, this isn't fine at all."

"Is there something wrong?" Melody asked, concern coloring her voice.

"The face removal idea is doing well," I said. "My vision seems to be nearly perfect, I can speak just fine, and although I seem to not be breathing I don't feel anything bad happening because of it. The problem," I continued, leaning forward a bit, "is that I cut off my face so easily."

"How's that?" asked Aria, her tendril continuing to drift across my face.

"This power of mine needs me to cut myself up in order to use it. Now, I know that this doesn't actually hurt me all that much and the damage can be fixed relatively easily, so I'm pretty sure the act of doing so isn't actually self-destructive. Despite that, I'm pretty sure that I should be feeling at least somewhat squeamish about all this. I'm sure that if I spent enough time using my powers I would eventually reach a state of mind where I would be perfectly fine with the self-mutilation involved, but I've only been doing this for about three days, and aside from a single freakout I've been fine the whole time.

"That's not even counting the current situation. I just cut off my face and with it almost all of my major sensory organs. That itself was an extremely stupid thing for me to do, since I could have been left blind, mute, and suffocating, and it would have been rather complicated reattaching my face properly without being able to see it. It turned out alright in the end, but I had no way of knowing it would be when I was doing it. I just went ahead and cut it off.

I sighed and leaned back in my chair again. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that my powers seem to be messing with my mind."

"How... Oh. I see," said Melody.

"So basically, your powers seem to have influenced your mind to make you more mentally able to use it, and you're not sure how else it is influencing you?" asked Aria, her voices sober. "That's actually kinda frightening. I'm sorry I suggested cutting your face off."

"No, don't worry, it's fine. You helped me recognize that this was a problem," I said, trying to comfort her.

"So what are we going to do about this?" asked Melody.

"I don't think there's anything we can really do about it," I sighed. "We're pretty much limited to knowing that the influence is there. Examining every thought I have and every action I take to see if they're being influenced would probably lead to counterproductive levels of paranoia, so we should probably not worry about it too much." The sisters voiced their assent.

I looked back down at the face in my hands, which I had apparently rolled up while speaking.

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

My vision without my face on seemed to be perfect, though from what I could tell it wasn't in the realm of the superhuman. I saw from two apparently invisible spots on the border between my side of the portal and the other side, which were placed about where my eyes normally were. I was curious if I could move them around, or make more of them to see through, but I wasn't able to do so. Still, a single day's failure didn't mean that it was impossible, so I made a note to practice with it in the future.

I also practiced using the various appendages Aria and Melody passed through me. Mostly I used Aria's tendrils, since they were much easier to pass through than Melody's bony limbs. As always, when they passed through I knew they had instantly, though they retained control until I took over. Taking control was pretty easy, as was releasing it, and both could be done instantaneously. I also seemed to have instinctive knowledge of how to use them while in control, which was helpful when Aria had me practice forming various organs on her tendrils (mostly eyes and mouths).

Since I could share the senses of the things I was controlling, I tried having Aria put forth a bunch of eye endowed tendrils so I could try having all-around vision. The resulting mess of vision angles was rather confusing, and it was hard to interpret what I saw unless I only used a few at a time. It seemed like something I could get used to if I practiced, so I made another note.

As I finished writing down my notes, I said, "I've told you girls that I'm going to school tomorrow, right?"

"Yes, and that we shouldn't speak to you unless you tell us it's safe to."

"Great."

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

Dad insisted on driving me to school the next day, even though it would make him late for work. "They'll understand," he said. "Now, be sure to tell me if anything happens, okay?"

"Okay, dad," I said, even though I probably wouldn't.

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

I had made certain to wear a long-sleeved shirt and a hoodie despite my new resistance to cold temperatures, though judging from what my fellow students were wearing it was cold enough for a couple more layers. I got a few odd looks for how lightly I was dressed.

I managed to avoid Emma and her lackeys for the most part that morning. However, Madison, the third member of the trio that included Emma and Sophia, managed to spot me as I made my way to my computer class. As I walked she followed behind me, trading insulting comments about me with her little posse.

"Ugliest girl in the school."

"No, I think the locker improved her complexion a bit."

"Maybe if she got shut in another ten times she wouldn't be nauseating to look at."

Bitches.

Lucky for me none of the girls shared the class with me, and since it would be suspicious if they went in I was able to escape them.

Computer class was one of the few parts of the school day I didn't usually dread, since not only was Madison not in it but neither were Sophia or Emma. The teacher, Mrs. Knott, usually gave the advanced students in the class assignments and then focused on the rest of the class. As one of those advanced students, this suited me just fine, and I was usually able to complete my assignments fairly quickly. Today was one of those days.

I decided to use the rest of the class gathering information on the parahuman community I would eventually join. First, I decided to check whether any of the cape names I had been contemplating had been taken.

Apparently Eldritch was the name of an extremely minor and ineffective villain out in the midwest. Apparently almost every crime he had ever attempted had been easily foiled, and nobody took him seriously anymore. His power was...

I stared. How the hell could he be so ineffective with the ability to induce auditory and visual hallucinations?

I sighed, and searched for the second name on my list. Lucky for me, it appeared to be untaken.

* * *

.**o.o.o.**

* * *

That afternoon I went out combing through various shops to find the various components of my costume. It was fairly easy to find a couple pairs of jeans in appropriately dark colors, but the backless shirts proved a bit more elusive. However, when I did find a store that had some in stock they turned out to have three halter-necks in an almost perfect shade of forest green. They were also on sale and marked down quite a bit, likely because no one wanted to wear a backless, sleeveless shirt in the middle of winter. Naturally, I snapped them up. Spares would be very handy.

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

The next day at school I was able to avoid my tormentors for the most part. However, Sophia managed to catch me as I was walking down a flight of stairs on my way to my next class. She apparently decided to sneak up behind me and push me down the last few steps.

Thanks to the pain resistance my powers granted me the fall did not hurt me very much at all. Sophia seemed rather disappointed by my minimal reaction.

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

That afternoon found me shopping once more, this time for the non-clothing items. I was able to find some belt pouches and a nice folding knife in the same store, and after purchasing them I found I had enough money left for a few odds and ends.

And thus, I had my costume. It wasn't anything special, but I hoped that my faceless mask would be unique enough to make up for that. I was really excited at the prospect of flying, but I managed to restrain myself to making sure all the parts of my costume worked and did not break. It was Wednesday, the following day, when I would actually go out.

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

Snow crunched beneath my shoes as I entered the local park. Nobody would be present at this time of night, so I had the entire place to myself.

But despite the wide open space it provided and the lack of witnesses, it wasn't nearly isolated enough for one of the tests I wanted to perform, not to mention how close it was to my actual home. It was, however, a great place to stash the hoodie I was wearing, and to practice flying.

Underneath the hoodie all I had on was my costume. I could feel that it was cold, though the presence of snow and the fact that it was in the middle of the freaking winter had already told me that, but it didn't bother me at all.

My hoodie was stashed away. A hairband and a few hairpins had been made use of, securing my curls and hopefully making me harder to identify. My face was removed, rolled up, and placed in one of my pouches, as were my glasses; the incisions for Melody's wings and tail were made. I ended my preparations by opening my fingertips for her claws, and then I put my knife away.

I stood at one end of the grassy field that was more than two thirds of a block long and made up most of the park.

"Allow me to help you through the steps," said Melody as I prepared to take off.

I tensed, readied her wings, and leapt forward.

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

"To be honest, I had not expected you to succeed in taking flight as early as your ninth attempt. Well done," Melody congratulated me, openly pleased at my accomplishment.

"Thanks, although I would hardly call my call what I'm doing 'flight,'" I said as I silently clawed through the air with my borrowed wings.

One of the first things I had discovered about Melody's wings, and the rest of her for that matter, was that they were completely silent no matter how they were used. I was quite thankful of this fact, as I'm sure if it were not so the noise of my ungainly flapping would have woken up the neighborhood.

Of course, it was nothing I couldn't improve with a little practice. Which was why I went back to the field and practiced taking off a few more times.

Once I had finished with that, I took wing and set my sights on the area I intended to perform my next experiment in: the Boat Graveyard.

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

No capes crossed my path as I flew, nor did I see any crime as I went. This suited me, as I would much rather practice with my powers and my friends for at least another week or two before I debut.

Huh. Now that I noticed, there were hardly any people below me on the path I was flying. A boy, all bundled up against the cold, made little snowmen under the watchful gaze of his mother. A couple embraced on the sidewalk in front of a house. A few people ran through the snow, laughing. None of them heard me, so none of them looked up.

I heard Aria and Melody whispering to one another, but I ignored them in order to focus on flying. Despite the lack of obstacles at the height I was flying at, I couldn't afford to be too distracted, especially at my low level of skill. That said, I could see a few of the areas where I was making the most obvious mistakes. Upon correcting them, I found my flight becoming smoother, swifter, and easier. I was still nowhere near the level of grace and speed I was certain these wings could reach, but I was making progress.

And then finally I reached my destination. The Boat Graveyard consisted of many abandoned boats and ships, most in the water but some of them beached, in some cases completely out of the water. Nobody ever came out here as far as I knew, especially not at night or when the temperatures were well below freezing.

I would have all the isolation I needed for my power testing.

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

"So what do you plan to do here, Taylor?" Aria asked, looking around through my face. Melody was quiet, and I wondered if she was worn out from the flight.

"Well, there are two things I want to find out. They'll be easy enough to test together, and you'll be necessary for both of them." Aria's tendrils swiveled around to look at me. "First, we've established quite thoroughly that you girls can stick bits of yourselves through me. I just want to find out whether or not all of you can go through me. And since you're rather amorphous..."

"I see," she said. "This will probably go faster if I had a larger hole to squeeze through."

"Okay, give me a second," I say as I retrieve my knife and pull up my shirt. Soon, most of my abdomen is opened up.

"Alright then, here I go."

A piece of Aria larger than any we've used before squeezed through the hole.

And continued squeezing through.

And continued.

And continued.

Eventually, the tail end of Aria passes through, confirming the idea that they could pass through in their entirety while also confirming that I had severely underestimated Aria's size.

Before, without anything to measure her against, I had estimated that she was a bit bigger than a car. Now it was apparent that her size was more comparable to that of a train engine.

"Um," I eloquently stated.

"So you said there was a second part to this, right?" asked Aria, snapping me out of my surprise.

"What? Oh, yes, the other part. Sorry, I was just surprised by how big you are." A few of Aria's mouths giggled at this. "Anyway, since we know I can take control of the bits you shove through me, I was wondering if I could still take control if you were all the way through me, and if I could, how far my control extends."

"Hmm, that sounds reasonable. Let's do it."

So without further preamble, I took control of her. I quickly ignored the input from the vast majority of her eyes. Also, I noted that she had apparently eaten a small bush that had probably been blocked from my view by her bulk.

"That was easy enough," I said as I had her start moving away from me. After about a hundred feet or so I started to lose control of her, an event she confirmed for me vocally.

"Alright. Let's do that a few more times just to make sure," I called out.

And we did so. A few times we introduced a few variables (like controlling through blocking terrain without sight of her, which turned out not to affect anything) just to be thorough. Once we were done, Aria went off a little ways and began playing in the snow.

I took a moment to finish jotting notes down on a little notepad I had brought with me. I would transfer the notes to my main notebook once I returned home. Once that was finished, I turned my attention inward.

"How are you feeling, Melody?" I asked.

"I am doing alright. A little weary from flying, perhaps. I will be recovered by the time you wish to return home."

"Great," I said. "And thanks again for letting me use you wings."

"Do not worry about it."

I turned back towards Aria to find that she had somehow, in defiance of all physics, snuck up on me. The portion of her body facing me had been cleared of mouths and eyeballs and such, leaving a smooth surface, flanked by a pair of similarly smooth tendrils.

"Alright," she muttered, "I think this is how it goes."

She then wrapped the tendrils around me, pulling me up against her body. I struggled against my bonds, of course. "Thank you!" she trilled. "Thank you so much for letting me play here. Before I met you, I thought we would be floating in that place forever."

_Oh_, I realized as I ceased struggling. _She... She's hugging me. It's been so long since anyone but Dad hugged me. _

_... it feels nice._

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

Over the next few days I fell into a routine of practicing with my powers. On Wednesday I had flown out to the Boat Graveyard to practice. The following day, Thursday, I stayed home through the night, doing small-scale practice and getting a good night's sleep. The next night I was back at the Graveyard, and so on.

To be honest, a good portion of the time I was "testing" was actually spent playing with my friends. Most of my outings to the Graveyard ended with me playing in the snow with one or both of them joining me, and a couple of the nights I was home we ended up putting together a puzzle together.

On Thursday the twentieth I decided to do a bit of walking around in costume through alleys and such to start familiarizing myself with the local layout. A good grasp of the terrain would be invaluable for a hero such as myself, so it would be a good idea to study it.

_Of course, just walking through here once won't imprint the map of the city into my head. I should find some reason to walk around the city, in addition to the flying above it I've been doing. Maybe I should take up jogging or something?_

My musings were interrupted when a nearby voice shouted, "Give me all your money, bitch!"

I stopped, then turned toward the voice. It apparently belonged to a short man in a battered blue jacket. In his had he held a combat knife which he was pointing at me, and his face was shifting into the expression of someone who was seriously regretting a great many of his life choices.


	7. Interlude 1-x

A young woman strode down a night-darkened street with a confidence fully earned. None could prevail against her might. Her enemies feared her, her allies respected, nay, admired her! All wished they could be as great as she, and none would even consider dismissing her as a child as-

As Kid Win's loud yawn jostled Vista out of her daydreams.

"Ugh. Do you have to be that loud, KW?" She grumbled.

"Sorry, sorry, but I can't help it. It's dark and so cold! I'm even walking instead of using my hoverboard to try and warm up." The young tinker shivered slightly.

"Weren't you bragging earlier this week that you had made a new heating system and installed it in your winter suit? What happened to that?"

"The power cell didn't last as long as I thought it would."

The patrolling Wards members crunched their way through the thin layer of snow in silence for a little while.

"Y'know, these are the absolute worst conditions to be patrolling in. Almost makes you wish something would happ-"

Both Wards members froze, Kid Win slapping his hands over his mouth. A few moments passed, and then Vista rounded on her partner.

"Dammit, KW! You know better than to jinx us like that! 'The only good patrol is a boring one' is written on the meeting room wall for a reason."

"Wasn't that because Clockblocker lost a bet?" Kid Win asked, before quailing under his partner's redoubled glare.

The two stood still for a few seconds, listening. Finally, they relaxed, and Vista said, "Well, I guess we're fine this ti-"

A high-pitched scream split the night air. It was followed almost immediately by the sound of Vista's glove meeting her visor.

"The rest of your stuff is charged, right?"

"Of course." They turned toward where the scream had come from. "Do you want to call it in or should I?"

"I've got it." Vista raised her hand to her earpiece. "This is Vista and Kid Win, we just heard a scream north-north-west from our position. Permission to investigate?"

_"This is Dispatch. Permission granted. Armsmaster and Miss Militia are patrolling near your location and have been notified. Reinforcements are on standby."_

"Well then," said Kid Win. "Let's go."

The Wards members hurried over to where the scream had come from, which was the opening of an alley across the street. The alley ended in a T-intersection a couple dozen feet in, and from around the left corner whimpering could be heard, likely from the person who had screamed.

Vista and Kid Win glanced at one another; Kid Win readied his laser pistols and Vista prepared her space warping abilities, and then the duo moved forward to investigate. Upon turning the corner they found it ended in a dead end. Against the far wall a man cowered, panting like he had run a marathon. When the shadows cast by a light behind the two heroes fell over him, he flinched, crying, "No! Please! Don't kill me!" He raised his arms to shield his face, blood dripping from where half of his right hand should have been. Both of the young capes flinched at the sight of the wound. Vista put a hand over her mouth out of nausea, and when she glanced over at her partner she saw that his lips were rather green. After a moment the man peeked around his arms and, upon seeing the Wards, said, "Oh thank god you're not that thing."

Kid Win walked towards the injured man, holstering his pistols as he approached. When he reached the man he knelt down so he was at the man's eye level. "Hello, I'm Kid Win, of the Wards, and she's Vista, of the same. Can you tell me what happened?"

"There, there was - oh god - there was this thing," the man sobbed. "I, I thought it was a girl, easy mark, but its face! Where was its face?!" He trailed off, tears flowing freely down his cheeks as he stared off into the distance with unfocused eyes, silent but for occasional whimpers and nonsensical gibbering.

Kid Win made a noise that might have been a muffled curse. "Can you tell us anything else?" he asked as he retrieved a first-aid kit from his belt. He grabbed some gauze out of it and held it against the man's wounded hand, causing him to yelp.

The man whispered, "Bit my hand off... so many eyes... oh god, it's coming..." and then returned to staring at nothing.

Thoroughly unnerved, Vista activated her earpiece again. "Vista here. We have an injured man here, and from what he says he was probably attacked by a parahuman. Please send backup and an ambulance; The parahuman involved may still be in the area."

_"Copy that, Vista. PRT squad is on its way with an ambulance, ETA eight minutes. Armsmaster and Miss Militia have been alerted and are headed your way now."_

"Damn it," Vista muttered under her breath. _Eight minutes is too long. Armsmaster had better be close._

_"Armsmaster here, ETA two minutes. Any information on the parahuman?"_

"Oh thank god. Uh, I mean, Vista here, he said something about them not having a face and that it bit his hand off, and something about a bunch of eyes. He doesn't seem likely to say much more about it, but it sounds pretty freaky. So, uh, could you try to get here qui-"

Vista froze at the sound of something landing in the alley behind her. A huge shadow had swallowed up her own. Flashes of light gave a hint of its form, a mass of squirming, writhing... [i]things[/i], like snakes or tentacles. The man moaned in fear as he pressed himself into the wall, a steaming pool spreading around him. It went unnoticed by Kid Win, frozen as he stared past Vista at the horror behind her.

_Oh god, it's here. I should have been keeping watch. Why wasn't I keeping watch? Stupid, stupid, stupid..._

_"Vista? Vista, come in! What happened?"_

"It's here," she whispered. Her voice came out high-pitched and thready between her suddenly tight jaws. "It's got us trapped."

_"Shit! We'll be there soon. Get out of there if you can."_

Vista's hand fell from her earpiece as she turned to face the thing behind her.

Her first impression was tentacles. So many tentacles, like those of an octopus, the lighting changing whatever color they were to black. But where an octopus' tentacles had suckers, these were studded with dozens of eyes. They varied in size and even pupil shape, but each was a bright, vibrant green and seemed to glow. Scattered among the eyes were a number of mouths, differing greatly in size and shape, but each was filled with a disturbingly large number of teeth in many shapes and, in a few cases, additional eyes. Every eye present focused on the three people before the beast, each bearing a hungry gleam. The mouths opened, and from them issued a hellish chorus of gibberish.

The same gibberish from another voice cut through the chorus. The new voice was, at its core, recognizably female, but it was hollow and echoing, as if its owner were speaking in a crypt. Countless resonating tones accompanied the voice, some high, others so low Vista heard them not with her ears but with her bones, all gnawing at the back of her mind, feeding the fear that had taken root.

Moments after the terrible voice had sounded, the tentacles ceased their writhing and began to retract to a single point, revealing the rest of the creature they had concealed.

The first things Vista noticed were an imposing pair of wings, like a bat's but with too many fingers in odd places, and so dark it was difficult to tell where the wings ended and the shadows began. A body was revealed next, that of a normal, if tall, girl, clad in dark colors, but its human form only served to accentuate the inhuman portions. Behind the legs a long, sinuous tail with barbs down its length and a color matching the wings undulated gracefully. Hands tipped with viciously curved talons of the same color hung at the creature's sides, bearing objects. In one a knife was gripped by its blade; the other held a gobbet of meat, dripping red onto the trod-upon snow. The tentacles retreated to where its face would be, revealing a head crowned in dark, curly hair, restrained in a ponytail by a hairband and some hairpins. And once the tentacles had fully withdrawn, Vista felt mounting hysteria as her thoughts began repeat the fear-crazed words of the man behind her.

_Where is its face? Where is its face?!_

Where the identifying features or a cape's concealing mask should have been was a hole in reality, a mockery of a human face. Thousands of stars burned in an endless void, galaxies and nebulae swirling in the black. Looking closely, Vista could almost swear that some of the stars and galaxies formed a face, crooked and leering.

_Is it a Case Fifty-Three?_ Vista thought as she hyperventilated. _And why does it feel so _wrong_?_

A glance behind her revealed that Kid Win had managed to snap out of his frozen state and was scrabbling for his pistols. Her gaze returned to the monstrous thing before her, which had begun to slowly saunter towards them.

She took a deep, steadying breath. _Calm down. It's not a monster. It's probably just a cape, and I can't just stand frozen like this while it can attack us._ She felt around the area with her power in preparation to repel the cape, then froze once more as the edge of her power brushed up against it.

_It feels sort of like a person, but beyond it there's so much within and beyond it and, and it feels so wrong and... oh god._

Vista clapped her hands over her mouth and bent over a little as a wave of nausea rolled over her.

The footsteps stopped. Surprised, Vista looked up to find the cape had halted in its approach, its head slightly cocked.

"Are you alright?"

It took Vista a moment to realize that the frightful voice had asked her a question, and a few moments more to realize that the cape had been inquiring after her welfare.

The cape turned its - _no, her_ - head to Kid Win, who had both his pistols in hand and was pointing them at her. "Could you put those away, please?" she asked. "I'm not an enemy."

He started a bit when she addressed him, but then shifted his stance slightly, his pistols still pointed at her. She sighed, if a sound like the screams of a thousand damned souls could be called a sigh, and turned back to Vista. "Vista... It's Vista, right?" Vista nodded. "Great. So anyway, are you alright? You look like you aren't feeling very well."

"Um," Vista began, but was interrupted by the sound of squealing tires outside the mouth of the ally, followed by two pairs of hurried footsteps approaching them. Around the corner came Armsmaster, clad in his blue armor and pointing his halberd at the cape. Behind him was Miss Militia in her fitted army fatigues and American flag-patterned sash and scarf. Her weapon had taken the form of a shotgun, which she was pointing at the ground.

"Don't move, villain!" Armsmaster barked as he held his halberd steadily pointed in the cape's direction, presumably lining up one of the gadgets he'd installed in it.

"Wait, what? Hold on!" The cape protested. "This is all a big misunderstanding. And I'm a hero, not a villain!"

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

"So that guy tried to mug me, threatened me with that knife," the cape said. "I don't know how he didn't realize I was a parahuman at first, but he certainly did when I turned to face him. I guess he panicked, because he tried to stab me. I tried to catch his knife hand, but I accidentally bit him-"

"Bit him?" Miss Militia asked, glancing at the cape's lack of a face. In her hand was a recording device she was using to take the cape's statement.

"Her power," Vista piped up from where she was leaning against an opposite wall. "She's got tentacles, some of which have mouths."

"Ah."

"Yes, um, I tried to catch his hand, but I accidentally bit some of it off. I intend to practice that some more so that doesn't happen again. So then he ran away. I chased after him, since he had tried to commit a crime and had to be taken to the police, and because he was injured and needed to go to a hospital. I would have called for an ambulance myself, but I don't have a cell phone. I made sure to bring the piece of his hand along." She pointed to the item in question, which was in a plastic bag in the hands of an EMT. "From what I understand doctors can reattach it, even without Panacea's help. Then I found him in the company of the Wards, and you know what happened from there."

_It's a shame her power makes her so scary,_ Vista mused, _and that it interacts poorly with my power. She seems like a nice person, if a little creepy._

"Alright, we're done with that," said Miss Militia as she shut off the recording device and pocketed it. "Do you have any way for us to contact you that won't compromise your secret identity?" The cape shook her head. "In that case, here's a pre-paid cell phone. We're the only ones who know its number, so if it rings, answer it."

It was difficult to tell, since the cape didn't have a face, but Vista got the impression that she was looking at the offered phone with apprehension. "Will you be able to track me if I have that?"

The corners of the Protectorate cape's eyes crinkled a bit, as if she was smiling behind her scarf. "Don't worry. We wouldn't do that."

"Well, alright," the cape said, accepting the phone.

"There are a couple things I would like to ask you before you leave," said Miss Militia. "First, would you be able to stop by the PRT building on Saturday? If you intend to become a hero, it would probably be a good idea to get to know the other heros of Brockton Bay."

The cape nodded. "That's fine. Saturday works for me."

"Good. Now, my second question is if you've decided on a cape name yet."

The cape shifted a bit. "Well, I'm sort of in the process of deciding still, but for now I guess you can call me Starfield."


	8. Jaunt 2-1

"But for now I guess you can call me Starfield," I said.

Many capes chose, or were given, names related to their powers. I had used the concept to compile a list of possible cape names for myself, though I'd had to remove names that had already been taken or had sounded too villainous. Soon after, I came to the realization that the less that was known about my power, the less able potential enemies would be in countering them, and so the more revealing names were also purged from the list. As it stood now, the list was rather short, with Starfield sitting at the top.

The sisters hadn't had much input on the name issue. Aria had proposed 'Tekeli-li'; I couldn't really see myself ever using it, but I just couldn't bring myself to strike it from the list.

But back to the matter at hand.

"Very well then, Starfield," Miss Militia replied, a smile crinkling the corners of her eyes. "We're done here for now, you're free to leave. Don't forget to swing by the PRT building on Saturday, and if you find yourself in trouble don't hesitate to call. The relevant numbers are already in that phone."

"Sure." I looked down at the phone in question, which I was currently holding in my hand. I couldn't quite remember the last time I had held one. Ever since Mom had... had died, because of one, Dad hadn't wanted any in the house. It had worked out alright, since the only person I would have called was Emma... and then there was no one for me to call.

But that had very little to do with this cell phone, really. Miss Militia had said that they wouldn't track me through it, though I noted that she had not said that they couldn't do so. But Miss Militia was a hero. She had been one of the first capes, having triggered some time around 1985, and had been a hero ever since. I wanted to trust her, at least on this. If You couldn't trust the heroes, who could you trust?

"Could you hold on to this, Aria?" I asked.

"Sure!" her many voices cheerfully chirped.

Miss Militia, who had apparently been turning away to attend to something else, turned back to me, saying, "Did you say something?" She looked at me just in time to see one of Aria's tendrils snake out of my face, grab the phone, and dart back in.

She stared at my face for a moment, then glanced at Vista, who shrugged. "Like I said, tentacles," the younger hero explained.

"I see," Miss Militia said, returning her quizzical glance to me. Then her face cleared, and she nodded to me before walking off.

It was my turn to glance at Vista, who was leaning against the wall opposite me, and a few feet down, as if she was trying to put as much distance between us while remaining close enough to to be included in the conversation. She was wearing her winter costume, a thicker, more covering version of her normal costume. Said costume had a skirt, and was covered in wavy, swooping lines that alternated between white and forest green, the same color as the shirt portion of my costume. Body armor had been worked into her costume, the breastplate having been molded to give the illusion of a chest, and a green visor topped off the ensemble.

From what I had read on the Parahumans Online wiki she wasn't much older than thirteen, the youngest member of the Brockton Bay Wards, but had been a member for longer than any of her fellows.

She seemed to have calmed down considerably from the fright I had accidentally given her earlier, and her nausea seemed to have cleared up. She still showed signs of lingering unease, though. I certainly hadn't expected to cause so much tasty fear in any of the people here. That was certainly something to think about later.

_Wait, tasty? Where did that come from?_

"I like it." I jumped a little as my thoughts were interrupted by a voice, which turned out to belong to her. "Your name, that is. Starfield. I think you should keep it." She gave me a smile which seemed to grow a little steadier as I watched.

"Thanks," I replied.

"I'll be at the PRT building on Saturday, like the rest of the Wards," she said, standing up from the wall. "We'll probably see you then." She waved goodbye to me, then walked off after Miss Militia.

The night was a bust, so I didn't see much point in not returning home. As I exited the alley, I passed Armsmaster, who nodded to me. I returned the nod, then walked down the street to a less crowded road. Once there, I ran and took wing, flying off into the night.

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

"Ah, Taylor? There is something I have been meaning to ask you," Melody said once I had landed in the park. She retracted her wings, tail, and claws as Aria passed a rolled-up sweatshirt through my face.

"Yes, Melody? What is it?" I asked as I focused on my fingertips to heal them. Once that was done, I put on the sweatshirt, then started healing my back.

"You were speaking with those people, correct?"

"Yes?" I replied, wondering where this was going. Once my back was mostly healed, I reached into one of my pouches for my face.

"Neither Aria nor I could understand what they were saying, nor could we understand what you were saying to them."

"What?" I froze, my face raised almost into place.

"We have not been able to understand anything you say that is not said to us," she said. "I, ah, suppose we should have mentioned this earlier?"

I sighed, then sat down at a nearby picnic table, my left hand holding my face and my right hand holding where it should go. "It's been two weeks, Melody, and I've spoken with people every single day of it. What took you so long to mention this?"

"To be fair, the novel sensation of not being bored is rather distracting."

That teased some laughter out of me. "I suppose you have a point there," I said. I raised my face into its proper place and started healing. "Ancient amnesiac aliens knowing how to speak modern english did seem a little strange. I guess my power is translating what we say to each other."

"That seems to be a reasonable assumption. I would take offense to you calling me 'ancient,' but since I did float around in here long enough to forget my own name..."

"Heh."

I rose from the table and began to make my way home. "Well," I said as the snow crunched beneath my feet. "I'm sure it won't be easy, but I'll find a way to teach you two how to speak english. Somehow."

"You would? Really?"

"Of course. Friends help each other out, and there's no real reason to keep you entirely dependent on me. Of course, I don't really know how I'm going to go about getting you lessons, but we'll work something out."

"That is wonderful! Is it not wonderful, Aria?"

"Hm? Oh! Ah, yes, that is wonderful," Aria replied, using fewer voices than she usually did.

Apparently Melody and I both picked up on the distracted quality of Aria's response at the same time, but Melody was the first to speak.

"Is there something troubling you, Aria?" asked Melody, concern writ large in her query.

Aria let out a symphony of subtle sighs. "Well, it seemed that Taylor wasn't very satisfied by the way things turned out back there."

_Oh._

The memory of the night's events rose in my mind. Turning towards the source of the demanding shout and seeing a man with confidence draining from his face, replaced by fear, panic, and deepest regret. The knife stabbing towards me, and me calling for Aria to stop it as I reflexively flinched back, even though any damage it could do, I could heal easily. Grabbing the hand, surprised as unexpected teeth carved through flesh and bone with near equal ease

And through our shared senses, the taste. [i]Oh, that taste. Delicious, so much like pork, and so juicy, too. This would be a great way of getting rid of bodies... Wait. No. Bad brain, stop thinking about that. Get back to answering Aria.[/i]

"I'll admit that I would have preferred to grab the guy's hand instead of biting it off," I said as I turned a corner onto my street. "But that's no reason to feel sad about it."

"No, no, that's not quite it," she replies. "I was somewhat sad about messing things up at first, but then I realized that we've only used my eyes, mouths, and tendrils. I'm pretty sure there's more that I can do, so I've been thinking for a while, trying to remember what I can do."

A curious "Oh?" came from Melody just as I said, "Really?"

"It's actually kinda frustrating. I feel like I already know this stuff, but it's floating just out of my reach. But I did manage to catch one thing already!" she exclaimed with glee. "It's that the mouths don't have to be shaped like mouths."

"Oh?" I say. _The mouths don't have to be mouth-shaped? Why does she consider... wait, if its shape can be changed, then... and maybe... which means... oh._ "Oh yes."

A savage grin adorned my face as I quietly unlocked the door to my house.

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

The following morning found me, of course, back at school. As had become the usual these past couple of weeks, most of my time between classes had been absorbed in dodging my tormentors. When I found myself unable to escape them, it was usually either Emma, Sophia, or Madison on their own or with some lackeys, though on a couple unhappy occasions they managed to catch me together.

Sophia was more physical in her contributions to the campaign of misery the trio waged against me than Emma, who preferred verbal assaults, or Madison, who tended towards childish pranks. The deadened sense of pain that my powers left me with helped me withstand all the pain she tried to dish out to me. My resulting lack of reaction to her attacks seemed to leave her feeling frustrated, and my long and painful experience with the trio informed me that growing boredom or frustration were eventually channeled into harsher attempts to make my life worse. I had tried faking reactions to Sophia's assaults with the experience gained from real reactions I'd had in the past, but Sophia's still increasing frustration and aggression indicated that I was not very skillful in my attempts.

Towards the end of our lunch break I was exiting the school restroom. Or rather, I was attempting to exit, as I found myself interrupted by the door slamming into my face.

Thanks to my power-granted durability, I wasn't dazed by the blow, though my lower lip had been split. It was a matter of moments to heal it, though, as I lay sprawled on the tile floor. That done, I looked up at the person who had opened the door.

I felt very little surprise as I saw Sophia enter the restroom. As her eyes fell on me they lit up with a familiar malicious anger. She quickly glanced around to make sure we were alone before crouching down beside me. One hand grabbed my wrist and the other shoved my shoulder back against the floor.

She leaned in close and, in a low tone, said, "You've been getting rather uppity lately, Hebert. First you're ignoring me, which is bad enough, but now you've started mocking me. It almost makes me think you don't enjoy my company." Her expression became an obviously fake pout, malice still glinting in her eyes, before it twisted into a nasty little smirk. "But I'm feeling generous today, so I'll teach you a little lesson."

Before, I would have likely cast my eyes downward and waited for her to stop beating me, but that was when I was alone. Now I had friends, who were kind and fun and supported me, friends that couldn't be taken away and turned against me. They accepted the names I had given them and let me borrow their abilities.

This new me looked Sophia in the eye and asked, "And what lesson might that be?"

Sophia seemed a bit startled by my odd behavior, but apparently disregarded it before answering. "The one where you learn you place at the bottom of everything." The hand she had on my shoulder tightened its grip, the pressure growing to an amount that was once painful.

I grabbed her hand and, still staring her in the eyes, firmly told her, "I don't need any lessons from you, so get your hands off of me."

This startled her enough for me to extricate myself from her grasp, get up, and swiftly walk away. Once I was out of the restroom, I started running and didn't stop until I had reached the bus stop.

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

_Dammit, that was so stupid of me. Now they'll just find some way to get back at me. I should have... Argh..._

I unlocked the door to my house and went inside. Dad was at work and wouldn't be home for hours. I dropped my bag next to the couch, which I more or less fell onto.

"Taylor?"

I shifted. "Yes, Aria?"

It was Melody who asked, "What happened back there?"

I sighed. I didn't want to burden our friendship or make them worry with the knowledge of the bullying. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

"Taylor," said Melody, "we may not have understood anything that was said, but it did not seem to be nothing, to them, to you, or to us."

"We've heard voices that sounded sorta like that before, and they make you unhappy," added Aria. "We don't like it when you're unhappy, so please tell us what's wrong."

I let out a quiet non-committal grunt as I turned over from my prone position.

"Taylor?" prompted Aria.

Another sigh left my lips. "It's... It's complicated," I finally said. Melody hummed in interest, so I hurriedly added, "It's a human thing."

Aria made a sound tinged with mild annoyance. "I suspect that you are trying to avoid answering our questions," she said as I sat up. "Please stop it. What kind of human thing is it that makes you unhappy, and why would you do it?"

"I," I began, but I trailed off. I didn't really have an answer for that, and any attempt at explanation would have to include the very topic I was trying to avoid. I blew out a long, tired breath as I slumped back into the couch. "I don't want to talk about it."

"But they were making you feel sadness," pressed Melody. "Please, Taylor, tell us. We want to help you."

"I said I don't want to talk about it!" I shouted. I stopped myself before I could say anything else and took a deep, calming breath. "Look, I'm sorry I shouted at you two. I just... Can we just not do this today? Please?"

The three of us were quiet for a few moments. Then Melody's voice broke the silence.

"Very well then," she said in a level tone. "We will stop asking about it for now."

"What? But sister-!" Aria protested, only to be cut off by Melody.

"No, Aria. Our friend asked us to stop, so we will stop asking for today. But Taylor?" I could almost feel her attention turning from Aria to me. "We will not ask you any more today, but we will ask again in the future. I could tell that whatever this is, it is not some minor issue. Please tell us soon, Taylor, so we can help."

I sat up once more and put my arms around my knees. "Fine. Can we talk about something else now?"

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

Saturday arrived, and with it my meeting at the PRT headquarters. I dressed in my costume before leaving the house, and I put a sweatshirt on over it. I might not be bothered by the chill anymore, but the temperature was low enough that Thursday's snowfall still hadn't melted, and walking around with my arms, shoulders, and back exposed would draw far too much attention.

The bus ride over to the PRT building was uneventful. I got off a stop early, then made my way through a nearby alley. Once i had reached a point where I was fairly certain I wouldn't be seen by people or cameras, I removed the sweatshirt and folded it up tightly, then retrieved my knife and cut off my face. After rolling up my face and putting it and the knife away, I passed the sweatshirt to Aria, who then gave me the hoodie and baseball cap I had given her earlier. After putting them on, I exited the alley at the end opposite the one I had entered from, then walked the remaining distance to my goal, keeping my head down so my hat would conceal my lack of a face.

The building used by the local division of the Parahuman Response Team didn't really stand out much from the rest of downtown Brockton Bay. It, like all of its neighbors, was covered in windows, and was reflective enough to mirror the sky above: a mostly clear, blue sky, though with dark clouds blowing in on the horizon. The only thing that made it stand out from its neighboring buildings was a shield logo bearing the letters 'P.R.T.'

As I entered the lobby I found only a light crowd of people occupying it, mostly various employees in suits hurrying in and out of the building. I made my way to the receptionist at the end of the front desk.

"Hello," she said looking up at me with a wide, friendly smile. "Welcome to the Brockton Bay branch of the Parahuman Response Team. Is there anything I can help... you... with..." She trailed off, her smile having frozen on her face as she stared into the space where mine should have been.


	9. Jaunt 2-2

I stood there for a moment, feeling a bit awkward as the receptionist stared into my face with eyes that were beginning to glaze over.

"Um, excuse me? Ma'am?" I said. I glanced at her name tag. "Ah, Margaret?" A general cessation of conversation around me caused me to glance behind me.

It appeared that everyone within earshot had stopped whatever they were doing and turned to stare in my direction. As I looked, I saw more than a few pairs of eyes widen, presumably after seeing my face. Some of them were edging away from me. The security guard nearest to me had tightened his grip on his grenade launcher, his other hand going to his bandolier of special grenades.

_Well, there go my hopes of an uneventful meeting. I knew my voice was different without my face on, but is it really that strange?_

I turned back to see that one of the other receptionists had wheeled her chair over next to Margaret, and was poking her in the shoulder. She turned to me with accusation in her eyes, her gaze fixed firmly on my chest in an obvious attempt to not look at my face. "What did you do to her?" she asked.

I held my hands up in what I hoped was a nonthreatening gesture. "Um, honestly? I didn't do anything. That's never happened before." _Of course, I haven't shown this face to very many people, so..._

She continued to scowl at my torso. I peeked at her name tag, which read 'Vera.' "So what are you here for, anyway?" she asked.

"Miss Militia asked me to drop by. I'm Starfield, by the way."

Evidently curiosity won out against caution, and she glanced up at my face. She paused for a moment, then said, "Huh. That's kinda pretty."

"...Thanks?"

She turned back to her coworker and shook her shoulder, and finally got a response. "...Full of stars," Margaret mumbled as she jerked upright. She glanced around for a bit as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, then turned to Vera and asked, "What just happened?"

Her coworker sighed and shook her head. "You looked at the cape lady's face and spaced out," she said, gesturing to me. "She says she didn't do anything to you, so I guess it's just you being you again." She ended her statement with a wry little grin and a poke to the shoulder.

Margaret shot her a halfhearted scowl, then turned back to me. "I'm sorry about that, ma'am," she said, her eyes carefully at my chest and not at my face. "So is there anything I can help you with?"

I would have raised an eyebrow if I had one. "I was asked by Miss Militia to stop by here. I'm Starfield."

She clicked through some things on her computer for a few moments, before saying, "Ah. There's a note saying that you'd come by, though it says something about wings..." She paused for a moment, then shrugged. "In any case, I've notified them of your arrival. Someone will be here shortly to escort you."

"Thank you."

I moved to the side so she could help the next person. Vera stared at my face for a little while, then rolled back to her place at the counter.

Hardly a minute passed before I heard a woman's voice call out, "Starfield!" I turned towards the source to see Miss Militia waving to me as she approached. In her other hand she carried a briefcase that had an American flag charm hanging off its handle. Her weapon appeared to have taken the form of a large combat knife hanging from her belt. "Thanks for coming so early. Come, I'll show you where we need to go."

She led me to a meeting room in a section of the building that I didn't think was open to the public. "First," she said, "we'd like you to give us a more thorough statement of what happened during the incident, as well as answer a few questions. It shouldn't take too long. After that I'll take you up to see the director, and once that's done you can go meet the Wards. Is that alright with you?"

I nodded. "Sure. Let me just get out of this hoodie first."

She gave her assent, and I took of my hat and the garment in question, which I rolled up tightly.

"Would you like some place to put those?" she asked.

"No, thank you," I said. I then quietly asked Aria to take the items of apparel, which she did.

Miss Militia stared for a bit, then visibly shook herself and said, "Ah, yes. You did the same with the cell phone I gave you. That seems rather useful. Now let's get started then, shall we?"

* * *

.**o.o.o.**

* * *

"Was Thursday your first night out?" Miss Militia asked.

"Um, yes and no."

The older cape raised an eyebrow.

"Well, you see, I hadn't been planning on making my debut then. My house isn't really the best place to practice some of my stuff, so I've been flying out to the Boat Graveyard every now and then. I hadn't really seen anybody below me the previous times I'd flown, probably because of the weather, so I decided to walk part of the way there on Thursday. Then that guy tried to mug me."

I sighed, then noticed the other cape twitch in response. _Huh. I guess my sighs sound weird to other people as well._

"I honestly don't know how he didn't notice that I was a cape," I continued. "You'd think the huge wings coming out of my back would have tipped him off."

"So where are those wings now?" Miss Militia asked. "Pardon my interruption. It would be rather difficult to miss their absence. I noticed that there doesn't seem to be any indication of their presence on your back. And I believe you had a tail as well?"

I nodded. "Yeah. I didn't want to attract too much attention when I came in, so I didn't bring them out. Though I guess I attracted a lot anyway."

"I see," she said, making another note on her notepad. She then motioned for me to continue.

"Where was... Oh, yeah. Anyway, when the guy freaked out and tried to stab me, I panicked a little and attempted to grab his hand. I meant to just grab it with a tendril, but I accidentally used a mouth and ended up biting off half his hand. That's one of the things I want to work on before I actually debut."

"I see," the cape sitting across from me said once more. "Now, I have a few more questions. First, have you experienced any significant cases of amnesia, and do you have any tattoos anywhere on your body?"

I paused at the odd and unexpected combination of questions. "Um, I've never had any form of amnesia, and I don't have any tattoos. Why do you ask?"

"I am trying to see if you are a Case 53," she replied as another note was added to her notepad. I started to ask her for an explanation of the term, but she answered me before I even said the first word. "'Case 53' is the term given to a certain category of parahuman. They have no memory from before they appeared in this world with their powers, and each of them has a certain symbol tattooed somewhere on them, or otherwise inscribed if they cannot be tattooed. In addition, every Case 53 cape to date has had his or her body altered in some way by their powers."

"Oh, I think remember now," I said. I read about them on Parahumans Online. "They're the so-called monstrous capes, right?"

"I wouldn't use the word myself, but essentially, yes."

"So you thought I was one of these Case 53's?"

"From what we saw of you the other night, we felt it was safe to assume you were a Case 53, had a Changer power, or both. Since Case 53's tend to not have civilian identities or even homes or families to return to, we would have to be ready to provide special accommodations If you were to join."

_Wait, join? I haven't decided to join anything yet, really._ "Ah, yes. I have a civilian identity and all that."

"Excellent. Now on a somewhat related topic, are you below the age of eighteen?"

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

Miss Militia had been right when she said that the session wouldn't take too long. It took only a little over twenty-five minutes, and as such didn't have the time to become boring. When we had finished, Miss Militia put the notepad and pen she had been using away in her briefcase, then led me out of the room. "We'll go and see Director Piggot now," she explained.

She led me to a set of elevators that were obviously of tinker origin. The ride was so smooth I could barely tell that we were moving. Once we got off, she led me to a room containing a desk, behind which sat a woman who was presumably the director's secretary. As we entered, the secretary looked up and quickly glanced over us until her gaze fell upon my face, where it stopped as if entrapped. She stayed like that without moving, not even to blink, for a number of seconds until Miss Militia cleared her throat pointedly, the sound startling the lady out of whatever state she was it.

"Ah, s-sorry about that," she stammered. "No idea what came over me. So it's Miss Militia and, ah, Starfield, correct?" We nodded in response. "I'll just let the director know you're here."

As she notified the director, Miss Militia glanced at me with a raised eyebrow. I shrugged in response.

"Director Piggot will see you now."

Upon entering the office I saw the director of the Brockton Bay branch of the PRT standing behind a large desk, windows behind her showing the clouds crawling across the sky. She was a heavyset woman with a bob haircut, and a small frown on her face that gave me the impression that she didn't like me very much. In fact, she seemed to have similar distaste for Miss Militia as well. The frown was quickly replaced by a polite little smile that did not reach her eyes.

"Please, come in. Have a seat," she said, gesturing to a couple of chairs in front of her desk. I sat in one of them, but Miss Militia chose to stand against the wall beside the desk. The director lowered herself into her own leather-bound chair.

"As I am sure you have no doubt gathered, I am Director Emily Piggot of this city's PRT branch. You are Starfield, I presume?" I nodded. She directed her gaze to where my eyes would normally be, but showed no sign of freezing up like the two women from before. "An apt cape name." She turned her head to look at Miss Militia.

"She's under eighteen and she's not a Case 53," the Protectorate cape said.

Piggot nodded, then returned her gaze to me. "Starfield," she said, "I would like to offer you a position in the Wards program."

If I had had eyes I might have blinked them in surprise. I had known that the offer was a possibility, and Miss Militia had hinted about it fairly strongly in our earlier conversation, but I hadn't really expected it, at least not this early in the meeting. Surprise quickly turned to uncertainty as I thought about the offer. I had considered joining the Wards a couple times before, but both times I had decided against doing so. Most of my reasons for becoming a cape, for becoming a hero, involved it being an escape from my situation at school. Joining up with a group of teenagers didn't seem like the best method for escaping a social situation. Not to mention that, as a more-or-less complete unknown with no achievements to my name, I would find myself at the bottom of the totem pole. And if one of the Wards was another Emma, another Sophia, that I would have to deal with outside of school? Ha. Forget dealing with it, I'd probably snap on the spot.

But it might not be completely terrible. I had my friends Aria and Melody, and their companionship could make things more bearable. When I met them on Thursday, Vista seemed nice, and Kid Win was... loyal, I guess, though I hadn't seen much of him. And from what I remembered all the Wards attended Arcadia High, so if I joined up I might get accepted there and be able to escape my tormentors.

Piggot's voice cut through my musings. "The Wards program exists for people like you. It's designed to help you figure out your powers and make sure you have the support you need. If you join you will receive a stipend, and the PRT will put together a trust fund for you that you can access once you reach majority. In addition, unless you are already attending or do not wish to attend, you will be transferred to Arcadia High."

The confirmation about the Arcadia transfer was nice, but it felt like she was leaving something out.

"Are there any requirements for joining the Wards that I should know about?" I asked.

She grimaced a bit, but answered. "You would have to inform us of your identity, and since you are still a minor your parents or guardians would have to come by and help you with the paperwork."

Dad. I flinched slightly at the thought, then froze. I... I didn't really want to tell him. I had seen it in how he hovered over me after the locker incident, his worry so visible it almost physically pained me to see it, outstripped only by his rage at the ones who had attacked me and at his own inability to help me. Its severity had lessened as I recovered, but it was far from gone. If I told him that I was a cape, it would only add to his burden.

Piggot observed me as I sat in my chair, thinking. She suddenly asked, "Do you know what a trigger event is?"

The apparent non-sequitur startled me enough that I lost my train of thought. "Huh?" I responded wittily. "Oh. Um, a trigger event is the time that a parahuman gets their powers, right?"

"It's the worst moment of our lives," Miss Militia interjected. "When we're pushed to the edge, fight or flight responses pushed to the limit, or even beyond."

"Thank you," Piggot said as she inclined her head toward the lady cape before returning her attention to me. "Was your trigger event the result of abuse?"

"Yes?" _Where are you going with this?_

"Was it the result of parental abuse? Because if it was, we have ways to help-"

"What?!" I interrupted, my voice shrill with outrage. Both of the women in the room with me flinched at my tone. "No! Dad would never do anything like that to me!"

Piggot held up her hands in a placating gesture. "Alright, alright," she said. "It was a little difficult to read your body language, and I am required to ask if there is even the slightest possibility of child abuse."

I deflated, saying, "Oh. Okay." I sighed to help calm myself down, then asked, haltingly, "Can i... Can I take some time to think things over before I decide whether or not to join?"

"Certainly. Take all the time you need. I cannot force you to join," she said, before muttering under her breath, "Much as I would like to in a certain few cases." She then pulled out a cell phone and started typing out a message. "If you want, you could spend some time visiting with the Wards members."

It seemed like a fairly transparent ploy to help convince me to join, but I didn't really see any harm in it, so I said, "Sure."

She finished her message and sent it off. A reply came within a minute. After reading the reply, Piggot said, "Vista will be up momentarily to escort you to their area of the building, if you'll wait out in the hallway for her."

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

The door closed behind me, leaving me alone in the hallway. I took a few steps down the hall, then turned to lean my back against the wall.

After less than a minute of waiting I spotted Vista approaching me at a much faster speed than her sedate walk should have allowed for. She stopped warping about twenty feet away from me and completed her journey at a normal walking pace.

"Hi there, Starfield! Glad you could come today," she said, a smile adorning her face as she came to a stop about five feet away from me. She gestured to the direction from whence she had come. "The Wards HQ is over that way, so if you'll follow me?"

I returned the greeting and we started walking in the indicated direction, though Vista did not use her power to shorten the journey. I noticed that she maintained a gap of a few feet between us.

"So," she said. "Are you going to be joining us Wards?"

"I haven't actually decided whether I want to join or not yet," I replied.

"Oh. It would be nice if you did join so we'd have another girl on the team. It's nearly all boys as it is."

"Isn't Shadow Stalker a girl?"

"Eh. She doesn't really count," she said, waving her hand dismissively as we rounded a corner.

We walked in silence for a little while, and then Vista said, "Oh, yeah. I was going to give you this." She thrust her hand into a cleverly hidden pocket in her costume's skirt. "You visit Parahumans Online, right?"

I nodded, and the younger cape said, "Great." She pulled out a folded piece of paper. "I spoke with a few of the mods on the forum, and they were able to make a verified cape account for you. It's got a temporary password on it, so be sure to change that when you log on."

Surprise and uncertainty mixed with gratitude within me, though a shade of suspicion darkened it. _When was the last time someone other than Dad gave me a gift?_ "Oh, th-thanks," I stammered. "Was there something you wanted for that?"

The little space warper looked shocked at the suggestion. "What? No! There's no need for anything like that. I just wanted to be friends with another female cape, is all. Besides, it didn't really take much effort to get this." She altered her path so she ended up next to me and pressed the paper into my hand. Once I was holding it she swiftly returned to her previous distance from me.

I would have frowned at that. "Is there a reason why you don't seem to want to get near me?" I asked.

"Oh, that." She rubbed the back of her head. "Our powers don't seem to interact very well. If my power touches you it makes me feel nauseated, and it's easier to not touch you with it if there's some space between us. I don't blame you or anything, though."

"Ah." That... was unfortunate.

"So yeah," she said as we stopped in front of an elevator. "Please don't be offended if I keep a little distance between us."

"Alright."

I cast my gaze down at the paper in my hand. _I guess it couldn't hurt to try._

"Aria?" I murmured.

"Sure! Let me get that for you," she chirped, reaching a tendril out to snag the note. "I'll just assume you don't want this eaten. Ooo, symbols!"

I looked up to see Vista, unsurprisingly, staring at my face. "You did that with the phone Miss Militia gave you the other night," she said. "Do you have a pocket universe in there or something?"

"Something like that."

"Huh. Interesting thing to use as a mask."

Any response I might have made was cut off by the elevator doors opening. We stepped inside and Vista punched one of the buttons. The interior was a bit fancier than that of the elevator I had taken earlier with Miss Militia, and the ride was so smooth only the button Vista had pressed told me we were descending. The ride was fairly brief, and once it was over we exited into a long corridor of chrome steel.

As she led me up to a security terminal at the far end of the corridor, Vista said, "Kid Win and I decided not to tell the others much of anything about you, mostly because we want to see their reactions." With that said, she stood up on her toes to let the terminal scan her eyes. With a metallic click and a barely audible whirr, steel doors whisked open and allowed us entry.

The room she led me in to was roughly dome-shaped. Walls were present, but they seemed like the type that could be easily dismantled and moved. A number of doors were set into various walls, some of which presumably led to sectioned-off parts of the main room, while others likely led to other rooms entirely. On one side of the room was a networked series of computers with large monitors surrounded by a number of chairs. Some of the monitors were occupied with screensavers, while others displayed camera images of key locations in the city. In the middle of the room were a number of comfortable-looking couches and chairs arranged in a rough semicircle, their occupants rising as we entered.

Kid Win's red and gold costume and red visor were similar to the same-colored body armor he had been wearing on Thursday, though I spotted a few differences. Like almost all tinker capes, Kid Win's costume was subject to frequent changes as he added and replaced bits of tech he designed.

Beside him stood someone wearing what could only be described as the offspring of a pulp science fiction hero's suit and a medieval knight's plate mail, in silver and gunmetal. From what I remembered this was Gallant, a cape who could fire emotionally-charged bolts of energy.

Across from them stood a boy in a skintight white bodysuit with glossy white body armor. Images of clocks in dark gray adorned the armor, some animated to float around its surface while others had ticking hands. A smooth, featureless helmet covered his entire head, a clock's face ticking away where his real face would be. The plentiful imagery indicated that the guy was Clockblocker, a cape who could freeze objects and people in time with a touch.

The final occupant of the room was Aegis, the current leader of the Brockton Bay Wards. He was large and tan, and wore a rust red helmet that matched his costume. Both had silvery-white trim, and a shield emblem adorned his chest. His powerset was a version of what was known as the "Alexandria Package"; strength, durability, and flight. His variant was somewhat different from most instances, but I could not recall if the Parahumans Online wiki had said how it differed.

Kid Win greeted me with a nod and a smile. I was glad that he didn't seem to bear me any animosity from our previous encounter. _Or he's good at hiding it_, a little voice in the back of my mind said. I squelched the thought, as well as the subsequent train of thought of how deep in my head the back of my mind was now.

As I reciprocated Kid Win's greeting with a little wave, he frowned, though not with anger. He then shrugged and turned his attention to the other guys. I redirected my attention similarly.

They had each frozen in the manner I had become rather familiar with over the course of the day. Honestly, it was becoming mildly irritating. Due to their masks, the only one whose eyes I could see was Aegis. To my relief, it did not seem that his eyes were in any danger of glazing over. He straightened and said, "Well. I must admit when we were told a new cape would be visiting I didn't imagine anything quite like that. It is rather pretty."

"Oh, um, thanks," I said. The three started slightly at the sound.

"Interesting voice," Gallant murmured.

"Introductions are in order, I suppose. You're Starfield, right?"

"That's a nice name, by the way," Clockblocker said. "Though it makes me think of a joke-"

"No, Clockblocker," the rest of the Wards interrupted him in perfect unison.

I mentally blinked at their synchronized response, then said, "Yes, I'm Starfield. I've already met Vista and Kid Win, which would make you Gallant, you Clockblocker, and you Aegis." I pointed at each cape as I named them, and they nodded in response when I named them correctly. "I don't see Shadow Stalker here, though. Where is she?"

"Shadow Stalker is a bit busy right now, but she'll be back in an hour or less if you want to meet her," Aegis replied.

"I might as well," I said.

"In any case, this is a little awkward," the leader of the Wards said. "Since it's getting close to noon, I thought we could all have lunch together, but, ah..."

I tilted my head for a moment before I realized what he was referring to. "Oh, is it the mouth thing?" He nodded. "Don't worry. I can eat lunch." He seemed to relax a bit at that.

"I was wondering why you two went to so much effort to convince us not to read the reports from Thursday," said Clockblocker. "Were our reactions to your liking, Kid?" he asked, his voice implying a raised eyebrow.

Kid Win wiggled his hand in front of him. "Eh. So-so. But then, you didn't get the full experience." He turned to me. "Where are your wings and tail, anyway?"

"I was wondering the same thing," said Vista. "I don't see anywhere for them to be on your back, either."

"Well, I didn't want to draw too much attention when I visited, so I decided not to have them out. Do you want me to get them out?"

"Sure, if it's not too much trouble."

It didn't seem like it could hurt. "Alright. Is there somewhere private I could do it, preferably with no cameras or anything?"

Vista's expression seemed to soften. "Shy about your powers?" she asked. She gestured to one of the many doors. "The bathrooms are through there."

I thanked her and made my way to the indicated door.

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

"Aria? Could I borrow a few tendrils?"

"Sure thing," she chirped, and a couple feet of her passed through the lower part of my face.

I maneuvered the tendril around to my back and trifurcated it, then bifurcating each of the resulting tendrils. I formed eyes on the tips of three of the tendrils, and paired each of them with a tendril tipped with a single, wafer-thin tooth. "I'm going to make the slits for what we usually do, Melody," I said as the teeth sliced open my back.

"Alright," she said. "It would be nice to feel what is going on out there. And on a side note, Taylor, what happened a little while ago that made you so angry?"

"Oh, that?" I replied as I reformed the tendrils to slit open my fingertips. "I was asked if my father had abused me, which he would never do. The question offended me, but since the person who asked the question was required to ask it and didn't mean to offend me there wasn't much point in remaining angry. And no, it didn't have anything to do with yesterday's thing."

"I never said it did," she said, her wings and tail emerging from my back. "But since you mentioned it, don't forget that you are going to tell us about it at some point."

"I know. Just, not now," I said as I watched her claws emerge through my fingertips. "Also, Aria? I'm going to have lunch soon, but since I'm like this you'll get to eat it."

"Yay!"

* * *

**.o.o.o.**

* * *

"-to my little friend!" Clockblocker was saying as I returned to the main area. The other Wards either groaned softly, held their face in their hands, or did both. While I was gone they had all taken seats.

"Do I want to know?" I asked as I approached. Vista looked up at me.

"KW just had to ask what Clockblocker's joke was," she replied. "So no, I don't think you want to know."

"Aw, come on, guys!" protested Clockblocker. "It wasn't that bad."

"I suppose that's true," Kid Win said, removing his hand from his face. The white-clad cape turned to the tinker, likely with a hopeful expression under his mask. "It wasn't painful to listen to. It just wasn't funny."

Clockblocker slumped in his chair with a sigh. Then he shrugged and turned his attention towards me. After a moment of staring he said, "Nice wings."

"Thanks, I guess," I replied.

"I think they're pretty cool," said Aegis. He then rose from his seat and said, "Well then, everyone. Let's go get lunch."

"Where are we eating?" I asked.

"There's a cafeteria up in the PRT building that's pretty good," came the reply as the rest of the Wards stood up. "Is that okay with you?"

"Yeah, that's fine," I replied as I followed them out the door.


End file.
